Manufacturers of tobacco products expend a considerable effort to provide to the consumer product which is uniform and which has a pleasant and distinctive flavor and aroma both before and during smoking.
The characteristic aroma and flavor were traditionally obtained by blending domestic, oriental and turkish tobaccos, each of which contributes its own particular characteristics and nuances to the final blend. The supply of the particular tobaccos needed to supply these characteristic nuances is, however, often subject to the vagaries common to agricultural products such as poor crop years, price instability, political turmoil, etc.
In order to alleviate the impact of such problems there have been developed a number of tobacco flavor additives to enhance, improve or modify the organoleptic properties of the tobacco blends. Such additives are used both to restore desirable characteristics of flavor, aroma and smoke that may be lacking for one reason or another, or to provide a distinctive note to the product. A number of additives used in the art are discussed by Sidney Gutcho in Tobacco Flavoring Substances and Methods, Noyes Data Corporation, Park Ridge, N.J. (1972).
At present there is a demand for cigarettes with low nicotine content (light cigarettes, lights, low-delivery cigarettes, low tar cigarettes). The results desired can be achieved, for the most part, by means of a so-called high-retention filter and/or ventilation. Certain aromatic substances may be lost through filtering or the ventilation process. It is therefore highly desirable to compensate for these losses by developing new tobacco flavor additives which can contribute a full-bodied tobacco character to the smoke flavor of the tobacco product.